WHO'S HOT

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. – Amie’s Dini won at two turns in her first attempt in last month’s $75,000 Martha Washington at Oaklawn Park and in the process earned her best career Beyer Speed Figure. But she still will be in the position of proving herself Saturday when she runs in the track’s Grade 3, $125,000 Honeybee.

The Honeybee, for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16 miles, will share a card with the Grade 3, $125,000 Razorback Handicap. The races serve as stepping-stones to the respective Grade 2, $300,000 Fantasy on April 11 and the Grade 2, $350,000 Oaklawn Handicap on April 14.

OZONE PARK, N.Y. – Why be 8-5 for $34,000 when you can be 3-5 for $57,000?

The no-brainer answer to that question is why Ruffino will be the shortest price on Friday’s card at Aqueduct.

Ruffino, an erstwhile stakes winner who was beaten less than a length by Haynesfield in the 2009 Empire Classic, was entered with stablemate Bernie the Maestro in a $15,000 “beaten” claimer for open company on Thursday, but the 9-year-old gelding will be held out in favor of a more lucrative spot in Friday’s fifth race, an optional-claiming race for statebreds.

In the 28 times the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile has been run since 1984, only once, with Street Sense, did the winner also come back six months later and take the Kentucky Derby. Only four other Derby winners – Spend a Buck, Alysheba, Sea Hero, and Mine That Bird – even ran in the Juvenile.

Hansen, the reigning 2-year-old champion and the recent winner of the Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct, is scheduled to school in the Turfway Park paddock Friday evening between the sixth and seventh races, according to the colt’s majority owner, Kendall Hansen. The colt will ship to Louisville to train at the Trackside training center leading up to his next scheduled start in the April 7 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct.

Here's my race-by-race rundown of Friday's pick four at Aqueduct on March 9, 2012. I'm building my wager with TicketMaker, found exclusively on DRF.com.

ARCADIA, Calif. – Circumstances forced Sage d’Oro into a tough allowance race for sprinters last month.

She finished second to the well-regarded Princess Arabella, a performance that trainer Mike Mitchell considered to be progress. When Sage d’Oro starts in an optional claimer for 3-year-old fillies over 1 1/16 miles at Santa Anita on Friday, Mitchell believes that conditions will be in his filly’s favor.

“She’s ready to go to two turns,” he said.

Larry Collmus, NBC’s voice of the Triple Crown as well the regular announcer at Gulfstream Park and Monmouth Park, will make a guest appearance to provide the call of the Grade 2, $1 million Charles Town Classic on April 14.

Charles Town’s regular track announcer Jeff Cernik will call the first six races on the card, with Collmus calling the final seven, highlighted by the Classic at 10:30 p.m. Eastern. The card will be carried live on TVG and HRTV, along with the Horse Racing Radio Network.

Churchill Downs in Louisville has elevated Ryan Jordan to general manager and Greg Bush to vice president of operations, the company announced Tuesday.

Jordan, 32, was appointed as general manager after serving as the vice president of operations in the company’s defunct Churchill Downs Entertainment Group, a wholly owned subsidiary that was shut down last year. Jordan had previously worked for the PGA of America. He will be responsible for Churchill’s “frontside and backside operations, racing office, staff, and ticket fulfillment operations,” the company said.

Fed Biz, an impressive allowance race winner, will miss the $300,000 San Felipe Stakes at Santa Anita on Saturday, trainer Bob Baffert said Wednesday.

“I had a little setback with him, not bad, though,” Baffert said. “It’s nothing serious.

“I don’t know if he got cast or what. He tied up a little on me.”